Grabbing private and public land had been the main source of income of the ruling party, Member of Parliament Haji Salim, in the last three decades.
Haji Salim entered the political arena under the banner of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) as field level cadre of veteran freedom fighter and sector commander of the Liberation War, Lt Gen (retd) Mir Shawkat Ali, Bir Uttam. Mir Shawkat Ali, also served as minister during the 91-96 tenure of BNP.
However, Haji Salim, a BNP ward councillor, took the first political somersault as he failed to secure party ticket for the post of Member of Parliament. He left the BNP and joined the opposition Awami League.
He was elected to parliament from Lalbagh Dhaka-8 in 1996 as an Awami League candidate. In 2018, Salim was elected to Parliament from Dhaka-7 as a candidate of the Awami League
On September 20, 2011, the government withdrew 105 cases against Salim. On February 27 in 2012, a case
over assaulting police officers in 2004 was withdrawn by the government.
Haji Salim's son Erfan and his bodyguards beat up Lt Wasif of Bangladesh Navy in a street brawl in the capital recently. Little did Erfan know that every blow that landed on Wasif was basically a death knell for the traditional power base of the old city godfather and patron.
Ruling party member of parliament Haji Salim's Madina Group grabbed at least 11 bighas of fallow land at Meghna Ghat area of Sonargaon upazila in Narayanganj. Sources in the upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land) Office said 11.38 bighas of fallow land were grabbed and filled with sand in 2018.
Jahaj Bari is just one example of property grabbing.
Jagannath University is looking to the government to take back the Tibet Hall from the clutches of MP Haji Mohammad Salim but the chances of attaining the goal are slim.
A parliament member of Dhaka-7 constituency, Haji Salim constructed 'Gulshan Ara City Market,' naming it after his wife, at the site of the dormitory in Old Dhaka's Waizghat.
Salim's lawyer has denied the allegation of annexing the Tibet Hall land, claiming Salim owns it and the authorities have no documents to prove that it belonged to the university.
The students held protests demanding swift steps from the government and the university administration to reclaim the dormitory on Thursday after the jailing of Selim's son Erfan.
According to media reports and university documents from the 1990s, the students of the university, the then Jagannath College, had set up hostels by seizing abandoned buildings in Old Dhaka but had to leave following protests by local people in 1985.
After the institution was elevated to a university in 2005, the students held movements to reclaim the halls from the possession of influential local individuals.
But they retrieved two of the 11 hostels -- Habibur Rahman Hall and Nazrul Islam Hall. Students and staff reside in these dormitories now. Tibet Hall on a 14.69 decimal land is among the nine dormitories yet to be reclaimed.
The Salim family took over high-value land, including some belonging to Waqf estates, and even vested properties and shops in different parts of Old Dhaka.
Whenever there was a dispute among family members over land in Old Dhaka, Haji Salim would rush there to arbitrate, said a local.
